Archive for December, 2014

Since Sunday night, I’ve come to the (not-quite horrible) realization that the plotline for One Day at a Time (the Gray Morning prequel I’ve been working on since NaNoWriMo 2014) will need to be entirely revamped to make it much more cohesive.

Which is fine. But I have approximately another 10k or so of story left to write before reaching the end; the ending itself remains the same; a lot of the events leading up to it will also probably be the same, it’s just that getting from Point A to Point B will have a different structure and certain characters will have a different relationship straight from the beginning, etc.

In short, The End is still Savin accepting Jazz’s proposal for marriage. How they get there will be changed — if only in the sense that their relationship isn’t truly a relationship until the “main” antagonist is vanquished/dealt with (Emperor Casio), and then after that Jazz proceeds to become Emperor himself while his relationship with Savin finally takes off without restraint — and Jazz tries to push it a step further before Savin’s ready.

Since I’ve come to this conclusion/have written down notes on the “true” progression of the book (ie, what I intend to do when it comes time to work on the Second Draft), part of me just wants to stop where I am now in the point of the story. It’s right after Jazz retaliates against Casio, fights back during a moment of sexual assault, and winds up on Savin’s doorstep to beg for his forgiveness/take their relationship to the next level (which, in the Second Draft, would be him admitting that he loves Savin and that he doesn’t want Casio and never really did and he’s finally stood up for himself, and he thinks he made a terrible mistake fighting back, etc).

Stopping here would mean leaving the First Draft incomplete (but with my planned ending already written and most of the beginning/middle figured out). Which is not what I want to do — I want a finished draft to print out and tear apart later.

But what’s the point in finishing this draft when I already know the rest of the events (as well as one can know the events when they’re character driven and a discovery writer)? Maybe I should print out the story as it is now and let it sit. Which is what the majority of me WANTS to do. Print out the First Draft, move on to Gray Morning, and edit the first novel during a (what will probably be) a much needed break from writing.

But shouldn’t I finish the first draft, first, before moving on to Draft #whothefuckknows for Gray Morning? But it feels almost silly, to push myself to finish a book when I will basically retcon a bunch of shit to fit the intended plotline of Draft the Second.